Traveling in Japan - Advice/Tips/etc?

Not sure about electronics but buying is going to be pretty good since the yen's weak against the dollar these days (~120 yen/dollar right now) and will hopefully remain so. Because of that selling will probably net you less than you'd like.

If you're just staying in Tokyo the JR Rail pass probably isn't worth it. It was worth it for my friend and myself because it was basically the same price as if we'd bought a round-trip ticket from Tokyo Central to Kyoto. You can price those things out, here's one of the websites for that: http://www.seat61.com/Japan.htm

Yeah, i think you are right to skip the rail pass. This site will tell you how much your trip will cost if you know the destinations.
Electronics - I dont know about america or the 3ds much but generally it isnt good for australia - wrong pins and uses 100 volts. But stuff is cheap!

master0 wrote:

So few more questions,

First is it worth it to buy electronics in Japan? I'm looking to buy a 3ds or 2ds. If I would get a deal on it in Japan I would be tempted. Interested in a few other things as well. Not worried about region issues for what I'm getting.

Second, if I'm planning to stay in Tokyo is a rail pass worth it? I only have 2 weeks so I figure the most I have time for would be Tokyo and Kyoto. The rail pass seems super expensive. Also odds are I'd spend the first week in a hotel in Tokyo. So I figure a metro pass would be enough for that week.

edit: Also tempted to sell a used American 3ds xl or 2ds. Any idea if that would be worth the effort?

Actually, I think this is a common mistake of first time visitors. Spending the bulk of their time in Tokyo City, say 7-10 days, and the 1-2 days in Kyoto because they heard it's essential (well that's kind of true). The reality is that there is so much more to Japan than just Tokyo so you would be selling yourself short by just staying there. Frankly, you can "do" Tokyo in 3-4 days, leaving plenty of time for other places.

Having said that, if you're really nervous about your first visit and you know you're likely to come again then Tokyo is a safe choice. Since visitors spend most of their time there, there are tons of English language information and guides online. But if this is going to be your only trip to Japan in your life you will probably end up regretting it.

One suggestion I have is to get the 7 day JR pass. Use this to plan a trip along the coast, with stops in Nara, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Himeji, Okayama, and Hiroshima. Each of these cities has what I would consider essential sites to visit, even on a first time in Japan. Also, you can maximise the use of your JR pass. That will still leave you tons of time in Tokyo which you can also use as a jumping off point for places like Kamakura and Hakone. You won't need a JR pass for that.

Anyway, if that sounds interesting then I can flesh out the above with more specifics.

So it's finally official got the tickets. Now for lots of planning. Got a really good price on it, 850 bucks is insanely cheap. Didn't think google travel would be the best, but that was a nice steal.

Thanks everyone for the help here. I'm currently resting my feet in Tokyo after waking around for hours on end. Having lots of fun. How do they all stay so skinny though? There's food freaking everywhere and it all looks good.

Awesome. Hope you see the cherry blossoms. Be sure to share some pics.

Welcome to Japan! I was wandering around Yoyogi Park yesterday myself! And I think you answered your own question: most Japanese are thin because they walk and bicycle extensively.

Glad you're here to see the last of the sakura season!

They eat a lot less than we do. And a lot healthier overall. Generally a bit more active, more walking.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

They eat a lot less than we do. And a lot healthier overall. Generally a bit more active, more walking.

The food is better quality as well. Less fat and more vegetables.

I was being a bit sarcastic on that. I've noticed the food being much healthier and the portions much more reasonable. It's just when I walk around I want to eat everything thing I see. It is cool to see everyone out and about around lunch. Watching everyone eating lunch in the park was nice.

Sigh. Any tips for dealing with a child in Japan? Got sick it seems. Planning to just pop by the nearest clinic in the morning. I have travelers insurance so I should be okay. Really sucks though.

sick sick or just a cold ? drug stores stock a lot of stuff/brands you should recognize, but they dont stock some things that you must go to the doc for and get a prescription. You can pay cash for the doc at the clinic and then make a claim on the insurance when you get back, they will give you a prescription and then nearby- usually out the back - they will have a little office that sells the medicine, clinics cant sell the the medicine directly.

The non prescription medicine is pretty useless in Japan, assuming you can even get the staff to understand what you need.

Best bet is to ask your (hopefully) helpful hotel staff for directions to the nearest hospital with English speaking staff. They should be able to call around to find this out.

The walking is very significant. You'll notice when you're wearing a pedometer or Fitbit. When you use walking as part of your daily commute, you're brisk-walking or "walking like you have somewhere to go," because you do actually have to be somewhere for something. Walking 5 miles a day on the regular to and from stops as well as to and from grocery shopping burns an estimated average of 500 calories a day, or 3500 a week. This isn't enough to get you fit, but with slightly lower overall caloric intake and less overall sugar, it can account for the slimmer figures.

Thanks for the advice. I was able to get a meeting with a doc who spoke English and got some meds. Hopefully this will clear up in a day or two like it normally does.

It's my last day on Tokyo so I'm still going to try to hit up akihibara. Otherwise I'll take it easy. Thanks for the help.

Glad to hear it! That kind of thing can be super stressful, especially in a country with few English speakers.

I managed to get Epstein-Barr virus when I moved to Japan. Problem was I lived in a part of the country where noone speaks English. Even my girlfriend, at the time, couldn't speak English. She brought me to the hospital and they ended up giving me a brain scan, a chest x-ray, and taking some blood. At the end both the doctor (who was only about 30 years old) and my girlfriend were bowing and apologizing for not being able to speak English. Very surreal experience. I spent the next week with a brutal fever, followed by chills, sweating, and minor hoallucinations. They took my blood every two days for a total of seven times. I wasn't allowed to leave the city. I found out later that my girlfriend knew what I had the whole time because her 6 year old daughter got it when she was younger. Epstein-Barr is a common disease for children in Japan. It's basically mono.

So I'm back. Was a good trip, had a lot of fun and missing the food already. Never thought I'd like that eel on rice dish so much. The breaded pork was real good too. Oh and cake everywhere...

Probable a little hungry right now. Tips for any other people traveling. Get the mobile wifi. It's a lifesaver. Wifi is pretty awful otherwise. It's mostly locked out or signal strength is weak. Go do a spa and play some medal games. I avoided pachinko places. Just too loud. If we ever open a dimension to the land of sound it's gonna be a pachinko parlor. Won a nice figurine in a UFO game. Also if you can't handle a lot of walking or handle being around lots of people then it's probable not for you. Missed a few things but saw most stuff I wanted to. Except the giant gundam sadly.

Thanks everyone.

Some photos below if you want to look.
http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/3358083323

There's always next time ;).

Where is the giant Gundam at? This is for when finally makes the trip. Currently, he is saving up money.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

Where is the giant Gundam at? This is for when finally makes the trip. Currently, he is saving up money.

It's the Odaiba center. It's basically man made island so it's got some neat stuff.

IMAGE(http://assets.atlasobscura.com/media/BAhbCVsHOgZmSSImdXBsb2Fkcy9wbGFjZV9pbWFnZXMvUDExNTA0MDcuanBnBjoGRVRbCDoGcDoKdGh1bWJJIgo5ODB4PgY7BlRbBzsHOgpzdHJpcFsJOwc6DGNvbnZlcnRJIhAtcXVhbGl0eSA5MQY7BlQw/image.jpg)

Vector wrote:

I managed to get Epstein-Barr virus when I moved to Japan [...] and they ended up giving me a brain scan, a chest x-ray, and taking some blood

Had a similar experience. I already had some Japanese under my belt by then but that doesn't help when the problem is incompetence.
They couldn't figure out what ailed me for the longest time and even talked about removing lymph nodes until I told them to look for a Epstein-Barr specific marker (thanks to a helpful tip-off from an MD back home) in the blood panel.
Which luckily revealed the cause to be EB before they could do anything permanent to me. A week later I was fine.

So my advice would be to always get a second opinion when in Japan
Glad to hear you had a good time though!

ARISE THREAD! ANOTHER TRAVELER APPEARS!

So I'm heading to Tokyo for work related reasons and we're going to be staying a week after to be tourists. I've seen a lot of good information here that I will look further into. At this point, I'm looking for help with two things. 1) Apps that will help me get around (walking and rail) especially since Google Maps won't let me download an offline version for the area. 2) Somewhere I can start learning the basics of the language so I can ask simple questions, be polite and know what basic signs (like Restrooms) are trying to tell me. Also, any updates people may have based on it being a year later would be awesome.

Thanks!

Human Japanese is a really good language learning app (it's on everything and not too expensive). I have it on a few platforms and the iPad version is the best. It might be a little more in-depth than you'd like, but you could just hit the sections you're interested in. If you take a couple hours and go through the first 4 chapters or so, you'll get a fundamental understanding of the language structure which is very different but very easy to understand compared to English. So, even if you don't want to memorize all the Hiragana/Katakana symbols, just knowing what the syllables actually are will help you enormously if you're trying to just straight memorize a sentence without understanding the structure. In addition to the language stuff, there are cultural chapters scattered throughout the 45 chapters that are short and interesting.

Anyways, I don't have a lot of experience, but hopefully that's a little helpful.

I had a traveler's dictionary with me and an app on my phone. Never really needed them. I'm surprised about the Google thing. Cause I did download the maps onto my phone.

My two tips. Get the rail pass if you plan to leave Tokyo. Rent the portable WiFi and get it early. It's a life saver.

Asterith wrote:

1) Apps that will help me get around (walking and rail) especially since Google Maps won't let me download an offline version for the area.

Honestly, I'd just pay your cell phone company to have slow phone service over there. I run T-Mobile now, which has free international (but slow) data but even when I was Verizon you just had to pay like $25 or so and they'd give you a relatively cheap rate for data, especially if you disable push notifications.

Having GPS and live directions was really useful to me. You can figure out the subway system if you need to, employees are really helpful and often speak at least some English, but Google just told me "Okay, go here for 3 stops, then go here for 4 stops" and bam, I was there. Even if you could download the map it doesn't give rail information like that without data plan, IIRC.

Yeah, I'm planning on getting the Verizon plan for my phone for $40 but I think its data limits are super low.. let me see... $40 gets me 100 minutes voice, 100 sent messages, unlimited incoming messages and 100 MB of international data allowance. It also appears to give me access to verizon international wifi hotspots.

One good thing, every 7/11 has wifi access as do most other convenience stores, fast food chains, and coffee shops. These are typically written on the front doors in decently clear English.

If you're sticking to a big city, the majority of people understand a varying amounts of English. A quick "sumimasen..." and an brief explanation of where you are trying to go or what you need is enough to get people to help out.

Family Mart and also Star Bucks wifi are a bit easier to connect to. 7/11 requires you to create an account and for some reason it never seems to remember the accounts I create. Lawson requires you to download their app.

This site is good for travelling by train:
http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/

Just plug in 2 train station names.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Family Mart and also Star Bucks wifi are a bit easier to connect to. 7/11 requires you to create an account and for some reason it never seems to remember the accounts I create. Lawson requires you to download their app.

This site is good for travelling by train:
http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/

Just plug in 2 train station names.

I had a lot of problems getting wifi while traveling around. That's why I recommend the portable wifi instead. Fairly cheap too and decent speeds. Let me gps everywhere.